


Broadside

by Sailus



Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: /tg/, AU, Abhuman, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chaos Space Marine, Crone Eldar, Drama, F/F, F/M, Imperial Guard, Imperial Navy, Military Science Fiction, Nobledark Imperium, Warhammer 40k - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 11:22:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12680874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sailus/pseuds/Sailus
Summary: Long and cold is the night that the Dark Gods demand it upon the galaxy. Along with it brings the Gothic War. The 12th Black Crusade starts in earnest and in the end, the Imperials believe they have won like every other time. One Crone Eldar has taken it upon herself to prove that she is the most worthy amongst the cultist of Slaanesh during this war. With some help of her sadistic cousins from Commorragh, insane hereteks, and enraged Fallen Marines along the way.





	1. Introduction

_It is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Eternal Emperor and Empress have been joined in their holy union. He is the last relic of a lost age when hope and wisdom ruled the galaxy, still clinging to his purpose of forging a better future, and she is the last remnant of an ancient pantheon, a mother watching over dying children brought low by their own hubris. Together, they are the Masters and Guardians of Mankind and Eldar, the keepers of the Last Alliance, the embodiments of the Imperium to which a hundred sapient species swear their fealty._

_At the core of the Imperium is Humanity, its teeming multitudes ever resilient, stubbornly carving out a future amongst the hostile stars. The greatest of Man's allies are the Eldar, ancient and wise, their shared bond forged in battle and sealed in blood millennia ago. Since then, others have been judged worthy to join in the light of the Imperium, to stand with Men and Eldar as fellows: the industrious Demiurge, enigmatic Tau, countless strains of Abhumans, and much more._

_Yet for all the Imperium's numbers, it is barely enough to stave off the forces that would tear it down. United under savage Beasts, the Orkish hordes throw themselves at the great edifice of the Imperium. The Necrons are awakening to a changed galaxy and seeth at the primitives who would dare harbor their greatest foes the Eldar. From the galactic east, the Tyranids have made landfall and sweep over countless worlds in their hungering tide. In the shadows lurk the Dark Eldar, reveling in the carnage of a galaxy at war. And from the Immaterium, the Chaos Gods brood and plot their eternal vengeance, served by the twisted Chaos Eldar._

_To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold trillions. It is to live in the last bastion of civilization as the darkness draws near. These are the tales of those times. Forget the stories of peace and harmony, for they are fables of a gentler time when the world still made sense. Remember the stories of struggle and defiance, full of brotherhood and sacrifice, for those, are the ones that really matter. Peace is a distant dream growing ever fainter, and there is only war as Men and Eldar hold the line for the promise that has been whispered through the generations, from father to son, from mother to child: that there is good left in the world, and that is worth fighting for._


	2. Birth

_"Although most races in the galaxy have failed to reach the level of spiritual purity of Orks, some of the closest is the Crone World Eldar. And the reason for this is simple: purpose. Much of life is driven by a search for purpose, to find meaning in why we exist. For the Crone Eldar, this question is already answered. They exist to spread the will of their dark gods, whether by word or by the sword, and all other needs are secondary. An individual Croneworlder may have their own wants and dreams, their own loves and losses, but ultimately it is this purpose that drives them forward even in their darkest times. Although I find myself abhoring their beliefs and goals, I admire them in their simplicity and purity of purpose."_

_\- Uthan the Perverse_

* * *

 

There was an air of madness that filled the room she entered but it wasn't on the scale of something found in the cult clubs. To the right was an angry looking Humen with a scowl on his face when she walked passed him.

"Captain Eloch," It seems he intentionally pronounced the first word with a hiss or some sort of malice to bring her extra attention from the chaotic crew, "We should press your gang into action any day now if we are not to arrive after all of the Imperials are dead."

One officer was trying to rape another officer with an electro-whip as an Eldar was cornered next to a machine and another Eldar was closing towards him. The annoyed captain drew her Saw pistol and fired a well aimed shot into the right leg of the female Eldar with the electro-whip. The ultrathin buzzsaw blades fired from the pistol ripped through her uniform and dug into flesh to cause a lot of bleeding. The damage wouldn't harm the body too much but the pain was rather powerful. It caused the woman to drop her weapon and clutch her wound as the other Eldar ran back to where his seat is supposed to be. Everybody in the room stopped what they were doing to stare at Eloch.

"What the Warpshit did you do that for captain!?" Shouted the bleeding woman as another Eldar put down his brush, which he was using to paint the best shaded, colorful, greatest naked female that he could imagine. The paint still hasn't dried off from the floor.

"Because you can do that after I dismissed you from this room, until then, I need you to do your job on navigation for this Black Crusade. So drag your sorry ass back to your seat till I order you otherwise!" The crew can see that Eloch was getting mad from this when she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Get a witch-doctor to tend to the bleeding," She said to a random runner. Causing an Eldar runner to leave at once to fetch the healer. All of the other Eldar slowly walked back to their seats or positions and went about preparing to depart from the docks orbiting Shah-Dome, the shell-world capital of the Eldar Empire but the Dark Eldar also said the same thing with their own capital. Eloch and the Fallen Marine almost passed by an Eldar who was staring at the ceiling with her mouth open. Grann was a short (by Eldar standard) Eldar who was high on several unknown toxins when the two officers were right in front of her. "Wake up sleepy head," Eloch said before backhanding the girl to bring her out of her acid trip.

"I'm awake! I'm awake!" The girl was flustered and pretended to be working the controls when Eloch was staring at her with arms crossed.

"Of course you were, now prepare Tendril for departure!" She loved her ship and knew it would serve her well in the coming war, but she had been itching for a real fight. Not some of the battles she had so far skirmishing Imperial escorts and Ork freebooters, not that they weren't nice. Compared to a Black Crusade, they were nothing. "Ahhh," The captain was taking in the feeling of power over thousands of crewmembers when she sat down to gaze outside of her bridge. There it was, her home, Shah-Dome. At least to her, it is the greatest world to ever exist both in and out of realspace. Her sight was bombarded with all array of colorful lights coming from the planet against the gloomy background of the Warp. Truly, none of the other Crone worlds could compete with the majesty and awe that this semi-real construct held.

"Engines," Eloch started to ask the various officers near her.

"Ready."

"Living support system,"

"Ready."

"Weapons,"

"Ready."

"Cultist,"

"Ready."

"Take us away using lowering leave ritual."

Tendril started to move sideways then away from the capital with the upper and starboard thrusters ignited to start pushing. The Fallen Marine had almost forgotten that the planet couldn't really be considered a planet when most of it was hollowed out as living space for the countless Crone Eldar who lived there. Unimaginable titanic columns held the entire thing together but he suspected it helped that it was built in the Eye of Terror, where the laws of physics were played loose. The chanting of the cultist could be heard coming over the ship horns at the table of the communication center. They were performing prayers and sacrifices to start up the engines then asking for safe passage through the Warp to join the Black Crusade. The Fallen Marine was wearing power armor covered in runes and dried blood from his many victims. That alone would have been freighting to any citizen of the Imperium, thankfully he wasn't working with those who could be easily scared by his super-human presence. To the Crone Eldars however, he was not really intimidating but maybe a little dull. Many thought he could do with a few skulls or flesh to liven up his appearance.

"Begin telling me what my assignment is, Commander Lokair." Technically, the Fallen Marine lieutenant held no rank within the Crone fleet nor did he truly belong on voidships either. Yet, here he was, commanding his detachment of Fallen Marines on this wretch xenos ship and was forced to 'advise' the Eldar captain to coordinate with the planetside elements of the Fallen Marines.

"Well, Captain Eloch, you are to take your cruiser and regroup with Cronefleet L'Oquis over Cadia."

"Bah! Why are we not joining Cronefleet Dome?"

"I do not know, you can try asking Lady Malys for that."

"Watch your tongue around your betters, or I may have to painfully rip it out of you."

"No xenos is my better!" Snarling the words after the captain correctly pressed his buttons.

"Then you best be on a ship where the Fallen Marines are in charge, oh wait... I forgot your legion lost most of them in the last war."

Lokair almost grabbed his bolter to blow the brains out of the arrogant Crone Eldar when one glance from Eloch told him not too.

"I too would love a good bloodbath, but we have proper work to do now Commander," Causing him to stay his hand,"And I need to be alive to see my grand plans into action."

"What may I ask is your grand plan?"

"Why, the slaughter of a quadrillion souls! Even then the Imperium has more than hundreds of quadrillions more to throw into the fight."

"The Long War..." The seemingly eternal conflict that exists between the Imperium and Chaos since the time of The War of The Beast.

"You and I both have a role to play in this great game." There was pure glee in Eloch's voice when pondering on the great sacrifices to Slaanesh. For far too long had she been commanding the tiny ships of only a few ten thousand crews or so, for two centuries now. This was her first time bringing a capital ship with a hundred thousand crew member to pitch battle against the Imperium. Many of the new faces in the Black Crusade saw the war as the greatest event since the Rise of the Crone Eldar Empire and the birth of Slaanesh. The old faces like Lokair thought it was just another day as he fought in all the Black Crusades except for the first one.

"Why don't you explain to me why I'm working for you? When I have thousands of years of more experience."

"Well..." Eloch loved rubbing in the face of the all oh so mighty super-humans,"You and I both know the Warp doesn't work like that, just because in realspace centuries have past means nothing on the time within the Warp."

"I know that!"

"You also know that once your precious Luther betrayed Lion and burned down those Maiden worlds, you were traitors."

Lokair spat at the mention of the primarch,"Damned autistic bastard, that species-traitor. Couldn't even lead school kids into a classroom much less a legion."

"Maybe, as I was saying, most of your lot ran into the Malstrom once you joined the losing side of the war."

Snarling the words,"Right into the arms of you dogs."

There was a shout from the front of the room as one officer yelled,"Prepared for Warp jump, Captain!"

"Jump on my mark...3...2...1...Mark." The same order was heard throughout all of the ship as the thrusters propelled the cruiser forward into the wound of reality. The cult managed to rip open a hole into the very fabric of space itself as they entered deeper into the Warp. Purple and hellish red lights on a black background were all around the inside of the tear when the crew saw outside of the windows in anticipation. "I love the feeling of being closer to the Goddess," Eloch said to Lokair but there was only a grunt of acknowledgment in response. Imperials may be cheerful at the sight of working with xenos but not the Fallen Marines or the Crone and Dark Eldar. In fact, his entire reason for defecting to Chaos during the war was due to him disobeying an order. The command to not kill their Eldar allies and he, along with most of the Dark Angles, went to massacre Maiden Worlds. This brought the clash between Luther, who he was loyal to, and Lion El'Johnson, the primarch he was supposed to be following. The Fallen Marine didn't feel particularly comfortable consorting with a crazy Eldar who worshipped the very same goddess that killed most of her people during its birth.

"Don't worry about me."

"I wasn't-"

"Slaanesh only devour Eldar souls of those who are unworthy."

"But you said it yourself, she torments most of the Eldar souls!"

"She also reincarnates some worthy of it or ascends them into deamonhood, since I'm no Imperial Eldar trapping my soul in an object, and there is no chance Isha would save me, I will become a Daemon Princess."

"Pff-" The Fallen Marine had to hold his laughter as he brought the back of his left hand over his mouth, "I've heard the same thing from way too many Crone Eldar and let me tell you what, all of them failed."

"Not I."

"Let's see." From his service during the War of The Beast then switching sides after attacking the Eldar to help the Orks and Crone Eldar he personally saw none become a Deamon. From retreating into the Malstrom to the 11th Black Crusade, he saw none who became a Deamon. There was no way some young punk Eldar kid was going to break the long pattern now. Whether or not if she commanded a capital ship.

"Any predictions from the sorcerer about our arrival time?" Eloch asked the navigation officer that was distracted when he was busy bringing a blade to his foot to feel the pain.

"Ah! He said the Warp currents were good and that the gods favor our journey, only a few days till we enter orbit over Cadia."

The thought of jumping out into an engagement was a very real possibility when facing the Cadian Gate. Every other time the Black Crusade bypassed or broke through the blockade, there were still stragglers and holdouts harassing the Cronefleets. Not to mention the planet-to-void weapons on Cadia might not be taken out by the time Tendril arrive.

"Notify me a day before we jump out of the Warp and prepare the batteries and strikecraft for combat six hours before we enter realspace."

"Aye, Captain!" The runner said before exiting the bridge to bring a slave as an alarm clock.

Eloch looked over at Lokair,"Get some rest in the meantime my frail monkeigh."

"An Astartes is not frail nor is he a Human."


	3. Scrambled Eggs

 

_"We are the ones who give of ourselves so that others may walk in the light"_

_\- Adeptus Astronomica_

The sirens were blaring to call to the attention of all the pilots within the hanger. "Scramble all squadrons for offensive operations!" The horn was yelling then repeating into the ears of everybody aboard. It would be drilled into everyone's mind what they would be doing for this operation. Kally was running into her cockpit when the crew was still loading the ordinance on and the refueling team just left running away from the voidcraft.

"So, any word on why we are scrambling now chief?" She was nervous and often times played with her fingers when the situation was dire. To be fair, this was her only second combat patrol and the first time she would be in a pitched battle.

"Sounds like the convey slipped into realspace sooner than we were ready for- Watch the torpedoes and don't move the fuel too fast!" The chief of the hanger yelled at the crew that was moving a bit too quickly to his liking.

"Once the missiles are loaded, you jump in there and takeoff 'Clipper'." Pointing at her Fury Interceptor painted yellow.

"I hate that stupid callsign." Kal made a grumpy face that people made when people got the wrong order of flavored recaff.

"You were flying awfully close to your wingman, you deserve that name."

"He always told me to stay close during the drills!"

"Not that close." Then laughed when he remembered the look of panic from Kally after the patrol and almost clipping the wing of her wingman.

The Furies were only used for void combat and it showed. Very round looking and lacking any wings, they would drop like a ton of bricks in an atmosphere as it had a negative lift-to-drag ratio. The front was a yellow soft tip cone with a black cockpit on top and the back was a box with engines at the end. There were omnidirectional turrets covering the top, sides, and bottom of the voidcraft but they were mostly for strafing ships. Las-cannons at the nose and below the cockpit was where the main armaments of the Fury were located. The engines were a huge thing taking up a large chunk of the back of the Fury as the Imperial Navy believed nobody would need void shields if you were moving fast enough to not get hit. Most of the actual voidcraft was painted yellow with two red lines running from the front to the back, to show to the other voidcraft that she had extra guns. Clipper's gunner came running in once he thought the crew was about to be done.

"All ready?"

"Yes, Gaius." Then clapping his hand twice to order the crew to clear away from the voidcraft and tell Kal and Gaius to get in.

Both the pilot and the gunner ran to jump into their voidcraft. Kally hopped in the cockpit from the top after climbing a ladder. Whilst, Gaius slid open a door on the side to crawl into the back near the engines. She strapped on the safety harnesses and belts then started her pre-flight checkup.

"Engines, green. Turrets?" Asking Gaius because it was the only main job he did onboard her Fury.

"Green!" After twirling the bolters around for a few seconds.

"Navigations, green. Fuel?"

"Green."

"Thrusters, green," Right after testing out the little holes that jetted out air from the nose, sides, bottom, and top of the voidcraft. "Weapons, green. Prepared for takeoff."

Kal heard over vox,"Gold Squadron all ready!" Told by her squadron leader, Lucius.

"Gold Squadron ready. Releasing Gold 1, over." Came from the hanger comm center to all of Gold Squadron.

Then walls came down sealing Gold 1's voidcraft from the rest of the hanger before he was ejected out of the cruiser when the floors opened up to void space. The same thing happened to Gold 2 and 3, sucking them out of the ship while keeping the rest of the hanger still intact. Then it was Gold 4's turn, once the floors opened up to void space, she was sent flying out of the ship with a force that made her feel like she was falling. Kally's visor had a heads-up display telling her to stabilize the Fury as she looked around to reorientate herself. Normally, looking at the visor mean seeing nothing but blank metal sheets as the cockpit had no glass, just lights to show the controls and armor to protect the pilot. Thankfully, with the visor on, she could see out of all the rotating cameras attached to the front and back. Grabbing the right flight stick, she pushed forward to force the Fury to straight lower itself away from the ship. Then stop to grab the left flight stick to accelerate then throttle to join the formation with the rest of her squadron.

"Better than last time I see." Gold 1 said.

"Thank you, sir."

"Yea, much better than you pissing yourself on our first patrol." Came over from Gold 3. That got a chuckle out of everybody including Kally.

Gold 1 had the callsign 'Gramp' and he was indeed the oldest out of everybody in the squadron, coming to about 32. He had that rough voice like he was smoking since childhood and that might have been the case as not too many people knew about his past. Gold 3 had callsign 'Jester' because she acts like she belonged in a Feudal world fair. This was odd for a person that came from Cadia and lost both of her parents at a young age, they both died in the Imperial Guard. Gold 2 had the callsign 'Air' because he was present everywhere and didn't make much sound, like air. That might be in part due to him being from nobility but his family didn't have the money to show for it. So for all anybody knows he is just brooding and angry or just too above everybody to talk with.

"Jester and Clipper will break off once we're 2 minutes away from our attack vectors, and Air will be coming with me. Now, approach in slant formation moving at 50 clicks."

Clipper moved in right behind on the left side of Jester before she said,"I thought we would have more time to prepare for this."

"Well, the rumor mill has said that the cultist got out of the Warp sooner than expected." Came over from Jester, her element lead.

"Also, they are scrambling voidcraft to counter us." Air finally broke his silence after takeoff.

"Okay, cut the chatter! Vox silence until contact." Grumbling over the vox-caster.

There was a grand hoard of voidcraft numbering around 50, flying in as quiet as assassins to their assigned attack vectors to approach the enemy convoy. The mass formation was closing in at a freighting speed but it did little to deter the enemy escort ships from breaking away from the supply ships. There was only a single cruiser in the back of the convoy acting as a guard, with not enough point-defense weapons to stop the massing Imperial voidcrafts. All the Imperials could see was Chaos voidcraft being deployed to intercept the attackers. The distinctive pink afterburn from the engine was a complete dead giveaway to tell who was the enemy or friendly. There was something about constructing engines within the Warp which gave the fuel they use a pink or red glow.

"Hah, we outnumber them five to one!" Jester said.

"Be wary, we can still lose." Replied Gramp with the logic that others in Gold Squadron didn't follow.

When the Imperials were about to start their first attack run, the enemy squadron suddenly accelerated to arrive right on top of the formation. It looked like the enemy would try to ram the Imperial voidcrafts, causing many to break formation and try to dodge the enemy. When the enemy was about to come into contact with the Imperials, they just cut their engines and used their frame thrusters to turn on a coin, pulling up to 15 G's. That would have knocked out most Humans or Abhuman as a matter of a fact, but these pilots have been fighting the Imperium for centuries. Their bodies have been modified willingly or otherwise just for the task of operating voidcrafts. Clipper and Jester broke away from each other to avoid ramming into the enemy but in the process, messed up the other formations behind them.

"Talons! We've got Talons!" Gramp told everybody in his squadron.

"What!?" Kally was panicking now.

She had heard of stories of these heavy fighter-bombers and how much heat they pack to level a small town. The amount of punishment they can take and still fly. When the first wave of the Imperials flew pass the Talons in fear, the Talons fired up their engines again to catch up to the tail of the vanguard squadrons.

"Bats above our 6!" Air shouted.

Right when the Imperials knew they were being tailed, the first bomber was shot down in a fiery ball from several Las-cannon shots. Screams could be heard over vox when the gunner and pilot were being burned inside their metal coffin. The Imperials reacted too late as the gunners on the bombers open up with their Las-guns to only miss. For something that was heavy, it sure danced around the incoming fire like it was nothing thought Kally.

"I and Air will cover you, girls." Soon Gold 1 and 2 broke away using their thrusters to level themselves upside down above the Talons. They fired to no avail as the Talons twirled and rolled out of the way before returning fire. One glancing shot sent Air spinning sideways and out of the mass formation. Gramp sent himself diving under the Talons and made a wide turn using just his thrusters. Coming up to 6 G's he believed that he was going to blackout at the end of this maneuver.

"Two- Negative, make that three bombers," Jester said slightly worried.

"We already lost three bombers!?" Things were not looking up for the Imperials if they failed to protect the bombers in the attack. For it was those voidcraft that would do the most damage against the convoy. Now that she thought about it, she and Gaius were nowhere near the targets when their formation was getting shot up. Dragon Squadron then made a wide turn to try to get to the tail of the Talons but two of the Talons realigned themselves to be leveled with the Furies. They predicted the Furies were going to be 45° to their right coming in at above their 4. So the Talons adjusted turning to the right and using only their thrusters to follow the path of the wide turn. To those that looked on a leveled field, it seems like the Talons slid along a flat surface like on a frozen lake when they ripped Dragon Squadron apart. The first shot missed the target to only clip the fins of the flight leader then the next shot from the first Falcon hit the engines of the flight wingman. The resulting explosion shook the other Furies near it and the Talons now switched to rapid fire. The steady stream of blinking Las-shots tore through the last two in the squadron as one was ripped in half by an internal explosion and another hit the cockpit. The one which exploded was punched through where it held the bolter munitions. One Las-cannon beam fried all the instruments in the cockpit along with the pilot into a mashed Human meat and sending the limbs flying into the void when all the air was sucked out. Dragon flight leader still tried to fire on the Talons once he made it behind them but the Talons chasing him were now in front of him. Still using just their thrusters, the two Talons were flying backward when they shot at the Fury and the Fury had to cut his engines to prevent ramming them. With his speed reduced, the Fury was easy pray from the two Talons with insane accuracy and Dragon squadron was killed without harming a single Talon.

"Dragon, Silver and Solar Squadrons were all wiped out!" There was clear fear in Jester's voice.

"That leaves just us and Ax Squadron with heavy Furies for this operation!"

"Don't you think I know that! Just... We'll make it through this. This isn't a dick-swinging contest."

"Right, just get in there, fire off some bolters then get out. Simple."

"Simple."

Then there it was again,"Ahh!" Coming from the last surviving member of Ax Squadron over an open vox channel. That Fury was sent spinning from the explosion on the outer armor plating and broke off formation. She couldn't control her teeth, they were chattering as if the Warp frozen over. Her knees weak,"What are you-" followed by static from Jester after Clipper accidentally decelerate when her legs lost power. The element lead Fury bent forward as the explosion burnt everything inside the voidcraft before snapping in half like a twig. That caused Kally to swerve out of the way of the debris and accelerate to get away from the wreckage. "Mama! I'm not going to make it through it this time!" She wasn't yelling this over vox or even within her own voidcraft. The words merely came out of her own mouth against her will.

* * *

"Move it you swine!" The slaves rushed to meet the demands of their overseer who was beating a slave for being too slow. One loaded the ammo into the flak cannon while another handed him the ammo from the creat, and another pushed the ammo creates from storage.

"Break off all squadrons from the enemy formation!" The captain of the cruiser yelled.

"Aye, aye! Talons are breaking off the engagement." Came from the officer at the comm center.

"Fire flak screen at starboard 45° above!"

* * *

The 90mm flak shells started exploding all over the place right in front of Kally's Fury. They were inaccurate as all hell but there sure was a lot of them firing. If anything, the cultists were just firing vaguely in the direction of where the Imperials were flying in from. It looked like a deadly array of spikes were propelled away from the cruiser much in the way of a defensive creature being attacked by insects. Soon enough all around her were yellow sparks showing where the shell exploded that she could see from her cameras. "Fuck this!" Saying as she pushed the throttle to come screaming toward the voidship. She along with a squadron's worth of bombers made it pass the flak screen. Most of the Furies either broke away from the flak screen or were riddled with flak. The bombers could withstand some of the flak but the sheer amount and close proximity of the explosions took out most of the bombers too. Once the Imperials were flying too close to the cruiser, it became impossible for the 90mm flak cannons to track their targets. Thankfully, the Las-cannons on the ship wasn't manned properly so the Las point defense systems were all but useless.

Kally followed another Fury as they flew under the cruiser to come into the view of the cargo ships. They were small pathetic things compared to capital ships but they were packed to the brim with supply and reinforcements. It was imperative that they destroy as much of the cargo as they can to keep the Cadians alive down there. The Fortress Death world of Cadia was thought to be the only thing preventing Chaos from simply pouring out of the Eye of Terror. Most of the Black Crusade had managed to bypass the Cadian Gate but there was still much fighting over and on Cadia as Chaos tried to take the planet-to-void weapons. The voidcrafts sped up to close in for melta-torpedo range while Kally went ahead of the bombers to start strafing her targets. The Las-cannons did little to punch through the hull of the ship when she was flying right towards them. When she managed to stabilize her Fury to fly parallel to the ship, Gaius open fired with his heavy bolters to rip apart the outer hull of the ship. Bolter shell could at least dig in deep enough to explode within the metal plating and tear out layers. Then Kally cut her engines to turn sliding back where she was shooting from originally. This time, however, the Las-cannons could slice through into the bulkhead of the ship as some of the metal was already chipped away.

She would fly away as fast as she could when she heard the bombers launched their melta-torpedoes over vox. The warheads would hit the ship when the Fury was far enough away from the resulting detonation. The melta warhead would first melt the metal and burn some of the cargo inside the ship, then the rest of the torpedo would explode to rip out a chunk of the insides of the ship. As the bombers all exhaust their payload, the cargo ship was ripping itself apart from the many internal explosions when the Imperials flew back to their cruiser. "Deus," There weren't many Cadian Katholics but Kally was one of them. One of the few who worshipped Deus instead of the Cadian Tree Gods. It seemed the omnipresent all-powerful God didn't favor the Imperials when Kally realized after flipping through the cameras to check the convoy, only one of the cargo ships were disabled and the other three still advanced to Cadia.

"Fucking Hell!"


	4. Boots

_"I ask not for you to kneel for the Imperium, I ask that you stand for the Imperium."_

_\- The Emperor_

__

"Coming out of the Warp in 3... 2... 1!" The Crone was shouting to let everybody in the bridge hear him.

Lokair had a smirk on his face when seeing the glorious battle all around him through the glass. He knew the Cadians were tough but not this tough. There were voidcrafts flying all around the  _Tendril_  as they avoid trying to ram the cruiser. Planet-to-void weapons were firing to hit some of the transports diving to the surface. Other Chaos ships were realigning to glass Cadia but had trouble dealing with the few Imperial ships still launching strikecraft to harass the capital ships. "Stupid pest," Saying under her breath before ordering,"Launch all interceptors! Establish psyker link with my Cronefleet!" The runner got to work telling the sorcerer which ship to try to contact while the horn officer yelled into the pipes connecting to the other parts of the ships.

The words rumbled through the metal tubes to reach the Crone operating the ghastbone engine. They told the pilots to get ready to be kicked out of the ship. Slaves shuffled about running to and fro when the slave driver whipped them back into place to keep the hanger clear. The Crones jumped in to have the fleshy tendrils connect their nostril and mouth with the voidcraft inside the cockpit. They were laying belly down inside their voidcraft and hands shoved into the control sockets next to the head. Then the visor placed itself coming down from the top of the Eldar to cover the eyes and plug into the neck. It was a slick looking fighter with red paint and a hooked nose to resemble a bird. In actuality, the nose was more to ram into other voidcraft or ship and do the most damage, as the fighter would get stuck inside the target. The body had sharp blades and spikes protruding out to absorb flak shells, and have them detonate before they can touch the voidcraft. Under the cockpit were some weapons similar to D Cannons but the Shear Cannons were designed to be used in void combat. Both of the weapons do teleport pieces of their targets into the Warp but that is where the similarities end. The Shear Cannons fire at the greater range and have a higher rate-of-fire to compensate for their inaccuracy.

"Lining up voidcrafts!" Came over the horn within the hanger as the fighters were pushed into place on the ghastbone locks on the floor of the area. When the voidcrafts were firmly locked into the claws on the floor, they began rotating to face nose first at the holes under them. The claws would smoothly slide into the machine with the voidcraft entirely inside the hole. With the fighters inside the holes came,"Catapults ready to fire!" to tell the pilots the holes would close and the airlocks would open. In a great rush of air being pulled out into the void came along with it the machine starting up to send the fighters slugged out of the ship. The machine used the momentum of the air leaving and magnetics to propel itself, then release the claws to throw the fighters out.

* * *

"About fucking time you contacted me!" The old Crone was yelling over his horn.

"Nice to hear from you too, Lord-Admiral Aiou" Eloch didn't like how easily the old fool can be enraged.

"Watch your tongue, welp!" Even over the telepathic horn, she could practically hear his nose flare up.

"I'm here to aid you, my Lord."

"I don't need your help, my fleet is successful without you."

"Then let me help you be more successful, my Lord."

There was some hushed talk from Aiou's ship before he spoke,"Fine! But you are confined to a strictly supportive role of defending the voidcraft transports and cargo ships orbiting Cadia, over these coordinates I'm sending to you right now."

Within a moment, the ghastbone glyphs began transforming into symbols telling where she needed to go.

"Don't fuck this up, captain!" Before abruptly cutting off his horn from the  _Tendril_.

"Raise the solar sails and get us lined up above the cargo ships we were assigned to defend. Launch all combat fighters to conduct patrols where those transports are entering the atmosphere." There was a smug smile on Eloch's face about the entire affair.

"What are you thinking in that foul head of yours, Eloch?" Chimed into interrupting the Crone's thought.

"I'm taking interpretive orders from my commander."

"You mean using the cargo ships as bait to lure in some capital ship kills?"

She was honestly surprised with the intelligence of the stinking Human right next to her,"Why yes, Lokair! That is exactly what I will do." Then pointing to the navigation officer,"Give me an update on any contacts surrounding the cargo ships!"

"The Echo cult has located no voidcraft near the cargo ships and some capital ships moving toward our assigned area from... 32 below bow, 27 starboard, and closing from 500 clicks."

"Good, good."

* * *

Kally was getting tired from the constant rotations after her Fury was merged into Gorgen Squadron. Her cruiser had been sending out around 500 voidcrafts at a time, ever since the failed attack on the convoy. They would patrol around for four or five hours at a time then come back to stay on the ship for two hours. Once the two hours were up, she would jump back out to shoot down some more transports over Cadia. There were rings under her eyes as she had been doing this for almost a week now. The combat stims could have been blamed for causing Kally to grind her teeth against each other, but she knew that wasn't true. She was just frustrated with the lack of sleep and the seemingly infinite amount of shit the Black Crusade managed to drag out of (what she thought was) the asshole of the galaxy.

* * *

"As long as we hold Cadia, this Black Crusade will not succeed! Just like every other time Black Crusade, no matter how many worlds fall, no matter if their cursed fleets move around the system freely, no matter if this Black Crusade reaches the opposite side of the Imperium. So long as Cadia stands, There will be a victory in the end! For there is always dawn after night. Ave Imperator!"

The platoon busted out to yell "Ave" along with the officer. From the other side of the trench were a Guardsmen and a Commissar standing to look at the cheering Guardsmen.

"You would think they would get sick of hearing the same words over and over again."

The Commissar fixed his red cap and coat to brush off dust, "I think those words worked on you, Yulia. Remember the first time I led your squad?"

Yulia started licking her fur behind the back of her left hand, "That's not fair Commissar Eisen! You were pointing a bolt pistol at Tristen when you said that."

"What did you expect when Commissars' boots get muddy with the Guardsmen's? There is a reason why the Commissar stand slightly behind the frontline when the Guardsmen stand in front of him."

Although others couldn't see it, under the uniform was lots and lots of fur on Yulia. From the toes of her feet to the top of her head was all fur. What little wasn't fur was located on her face, palms, and soles of her feet. She is much like the other the marmoset or cat-like Abhumans from the Feudal world of Carlos McConnell. The fluffy pointed ears folded from the sound of an explosion and Yulia ducked before the other Guardsmen could react. The shell detonated after burying itself near the front of the trench to send rocks flying into the air. When the other platoon started to react, the rocks fell onto them to hit a few men. In the dark bunker, the shadow made the Felinid's cat eyes glow unnaturally like a predator. Mud and dirt covered Yulia's pink skin to allow her to camouflage along with her brown fur. With only her tail poking out of the darkness, the appendage began rubbing Eisen's face which was low to the ground after ducking at the first explosion.

"Get your stinking tail off me!" Spitting out the fur and waving off the tail.

"I can hear more shells on the way! Get in here Commissar!"

The red officer scrambles off of the ground to run at the underground bunker before another shell exploded. This time three Guardsmen were too close and the shockwave from the shell ruptured their organs. They lay choking on blood as they tried to claw their own uniforms off. When Eisen was near the entrance of the bunker, Yulia extended her hands to grab the Commissar by the arms and help him off his feet.

"Ow, ow, ow! Watch the claws!"

"Sorry, sir! I extend my claws when I get nervous."

"Ready for another orgy of violence, Guardsmen?"

"Not until after the bombardment, Commissar!"

* * *

 _Tendril_  was patiently waiting for the coordinates now. The Imperial light cruisers, ever the opportunistic, ran right for the cargo ships once they thought the Crone cruiser was waving off.

"Cut all minor rituals, engines, and the solar sails! Begin silent running!"

The Fallen Marine interjected, "You will need more than that if you hope to fool the Imperial Navy."

"Send out decoy signals moving away from both the Imperials and the cargo ships."

Now, the Crone ship sat quietly farther away from Cadia and nose pointed at the cargo ships. It was relatively above the area assigned to guard and all the main batteries were aimed at the direction of the cargo ships. If the Imperials couldn't be fooled by Eloch, they would fire their macro-batteries after rotating to shoot once they got into range moving toward the area. If they were fooled, the Imperials would slide to fire at the targets instead of the  _Tendril_  sitting at their blindspot. The Imperial light cruisers both had no maco-turrets and just broadside cannons. Meaning, they had no way of effectively defending themselves if an enemy fired from above them, as they would need to rotate their entire ship while being shot at.

"Now what?" Lokair was asking.

"Now? Now we wait to see if my gamble paid off!" Laughing while slapping her knee for humor that the Fallen Marine didn't understand. To her, seeing the plan succeeding or failing didn't matter to her. Either way, hundreds of thousands will die a fiery death with pain and fear as their last moments, whether it be Imperial or Chaos. All those who will die in the upcoming engagement will an offering to the Dark Goddess and if Eloch was very lucky, be rewarded with a daemon princedom.


	5. Scent

_"His prayers were answered, but not by the deities he expected."_

_\- The Dark Apostle_

"Get a status update from the Auger Array!" Tiberius was smoking his pipe while twirling his autoquill around in his hand. He was careful not to press the button which would eject the ink onto the bone and would surely make a mess onto his uniform.

"The Crone cruiser went offline for a few minutes before we picked it up again moving away to above 37° bow and 18° port at 1000 clicks," Then went back to review his screen to be certain that there were no discrepancies in the numbers.

The tan and leathery skin on his fingers touched the white beard to stroke it as he was deep in thought. Why did the enemy engage in silent running just to turn away from us? Were the cargo ships really not important enough to defend them? Along with other such questions plagued the captain on predicting the motive of the enemy. Although trying to predict the motives of the insane is rarely possible. There was a primal instinct that told him not to chase after them or hit the targets. Something was definitely wrong with the whole affair as it would prove to be too easy in their attack.

"Send a telepath to  _Pike_  saying: Hold Position, stop, Wait for enemy movement, end."

The comms officer flipped a switch that closed a horn while pressing a button to open up another horn connected to the psyker comm room. Then repeating the message to somebody listening on the other end.

* * *

 _Pike_  most certainly received the message and replied with,"Will be pursuing targets, stop, No threat in sight, end."

One Tech-Priest turned up his speakers to say,"Pull the cables using the engines then turn the shell to face the breach!" The rates around him was a stupid bunch when handling loading the shells, they were pretty good in accuracy but not much else. Several people rolled the shell over the hooks laying on the floor. Then two more hooks attached to cables came flying over the shell to have them strap onto the other hooks on the floor. Once the cables were firmly around the shell, the girl on the machine pulled and pushed some levers or switches and buttons to have the crane start pulling the shell above the floor. When the shell was hanging over the surface, the sailors got to work pushing the shell while another guided them in which direction it should be facing. After the warhead was facing the right way, the crane slowly slid near the breach of the macro-cannon with the help of the rates steadying it as the shell entered the weapon.

The sailors did the same thing again of lifting the shell and strapping on the cables, but this time the crane sat the munition back down in preparation for loading another shell. It was safer to leave the shell on the floor strapped into the crane instead of having it hang in the air, as when the ship takes a direct hit, the entire room shakes from the impact.

* * *

There was a predator lurking in the shadow of the void while one Imperial light cruiser rushed headfirst into combat and another followed as reinforcement.  _Tendril_  was a Tormenter-class Crone battlecruiser that shifted the triple-barreled turret on its prow and bow to target the closest Imperial ship. When all the glyphs confirmed there was no way for the enemy to dodge the shots on the holo-display, Eloch licked her lips.

"Fire on my mark. 3... 2... 1... Mark!"

The bow turret fired all three its Starcannons at once then followed by the prow turret firing as well after the captain yelled the order through the horns attached to her tactical table screen. Six in total were the wailing bloody streams of light that came running out of the barrels. The first three connected with the target's void shield near the bridge as the last three hit where the engines would be.

* * *

"We've been hit, Captain!" The officer yelled as another hit rocks the bridge sending some standing to fall.

"From where! I demand an answer, Godsdammit!"

He quickly typed into the cogitators to find what if anything the sensors picked up,"Our augur arrays picked up an energy spike from about 90° above our bow, 32° starboard!"

"Shit..."

The only weapons the ship had pointed out from the bow was either rail cannons or missile pods. The rail rounds would bounce off of the ghastbone armor while the missiles would be taken out by the ship's point-defense-systems.

* * *

Captain Tiberius now needed to think of a way to take the heat off of his wounded comrade,"Divert all powers the frame thrusters! Bring us to a high-energy turn facing our starboard toward the enemy!"

Giant engines on the prow and bow along with the ones at the aft and dorsal ignited for the first time in awhile, they all pushed to some degree in the direction they were facing away from the ship's hull. The entire maneuver would take a few minutes to complete as the enemy moved in. If all the thrusters didn't start pushing in their own direction, it could have sent the ship spinning away instead of a steady shift in position. That spun the vessel in place to have the hull macro-batteries facing the enemy battlecruiser.

"Confirmed, Crone cruiser or battlecruiser on an intercept course toward  _Pike_!" yelled the comms officer.

"Fire starboard macro-cannons at will!" he ordered into the horns near his holo-display.

"Aye aye, captain!" the words came back from fire control.

The macro shells were at least ten or twenty meters wide when the crane lifted one, some sailors also steadied it with pulleys. After the hooks were detached, the shell was pushed in with a massive machine coming down from the ceiling. The macro-cannon sealed the shell within itself then an alarm rang out to tell the sailors to leave the immediate vicinity near the cannon. One minute later after the sirens started blaring, walls came up from the floor to lock off the macro-cannon from the rest of the room. The Weapon Master was confident in the targeting parameters before his eyes to fire the first salvo at his discretion. When he did pull the lever to fire all the batteries, the room shook from the vibration of the blast that came from the cannons. Some were kneeling as the sensation hit them while others already brought their hands to their ears by the time the shockwaves arrived.

* * *

Captain Lysander was panicking at the sudden change of the situation,"Load torpedoes and have us turning our prow to face the nearest cargo ship!"

"Aye aye, captain!"

Soon the prow of the Pike was facing the harmless cargo ship with several fifty or so meters long explosive tubes. Titanic rail engines inside the ship pushed and pulled the torpedoes before detaching themselves near the tube to have smaller wheeled vehicles push it in.

"Launch all torpedoes on predictable forward and reversal paths the cargo ships could take."

Six tubes fired off all their payloads as the cargo ship started to turn away from the light cruiser. All the three torpedoes on the starboard of the prow turned to face slightly behind the target's engines at the level, above it, or below it. The port side torpedoes did the same thing but facing slightly in front of the ship's bow instead. When the torpedoes were too far to receive lag free instructions from the warship, they stopped turning after the cogitators back on the ship cut off all links. Without the links back to the voidship, the torpedoes merely went in a straight line to their assigned target areas and would only rearm themselves once detecting a solid object in front of them.

* * *

Eloch was too eager for the slaughter at hand,"All ahead full!" Prompting the engines to ignite with a dreadful pink glow as the solar sail masts pushed themselves out of the battlecruiser for activation. The flat purple hexagons connecting the mast to the hull was bright from their use as the entire vessel dragged itself forcefully through realspace at a freighting speed. Fearing a ramming from the enemy, the light cruiser turned toward the voidship in an attempt to evade. It was a minute after that both ship were only 4000 clicks away from each other. With the macro-batteries, all lined up to fire,  _Pike_  sent out a volley into the hull of  _Tendril_. Macro shells detonated to rip out tens of meters of ghastbone armor from the enemy. Thankfully for the Crones, there was a good one or two hundred more meters left of armor before it reached the outer non-critical bulkheads.

"They don't have void shields!" One officer proclaimed onboard  _Pike_.

"Something about messing up their ships while they fight each other near their Crone worlds." Captain Lysander didn't have a clear understanding of the reasoning either, but he suspected it was the fact that damage absorbed by void shields would teleport to a random spot in the Warp. To strip all Crone ships of void shields would mean that the problem is not so much about teleporting damage to a random spot, maybe it would be into the ships themselves or onto a Crone world. After ten thousand years of warring with the Crones, the Imperial Navy still didn't fully grasp the full extent of their technology.

In the time it took Tendril and Pike to start duking it out, the torpedoes hit their mark when the starboard ones utterly veered off into nothingness. On the other hand, the port ones all connected with their target when the ship was trying to turn away from both Cadia and Pike.

The top on hit the ship's bow, the level one punched into the hull, and the lower one almost bounced off of the belly of the ship. These warheads set off to blow open the outer layer of metal before the charge inside thrust itself into the hull and detonating again within. The secondary explosion was enough to send a shockwave throughout all the bulkheads then have the very vessel split in twain from the weakening internal structure. Gravity and air did the rest of the work as the weak metal parts were flung out by air escaping while whole rooms containing hundreds of troops were falling into the planet's surface. Hangers full of voidcraft were trying their best to flee from the wreckage in the wake of several smaller denotations rocked everybody inside. Tens of thousands were still trapped within when the voidcrafts started leaving on their own accord. There was no way for the cargo ship to have enough escape pods to save even a tenth of those onboard, resulting in everybody trampling each other to leave or banging the shut doors in the isolated bulkheads. Hundreds tried to jump onto the voidcraft as they left the airless void of space, some clinging to the hull even in the darkness over Cadia.

* * *

"Gods, we just lost a cargo ship!" Lokair's nostrils flaring at the sight of the burning debris falling into the gravity well of Cadia.

"Don't interrupt my thought process," After the Fallen Marine turned to glare at Eloch then bringing her hands running along the insides of her thighs,"Fine, fine, prepare for Reverse Birthing. Let's finish off this Imperial light cruiser once and for all."

The psykers within the bowels of the ship were a group chanting and channeling all their psychic energy into a spinning stone ring, it floated in midair as the raw essence of the Warp leaked into realspace. They managed to tear open a hole into the Warp in front of  _Tendril_  and have the battlecruiser run inside of it. The two advertisers were moving in opposite directions before the Crone ship slipped into the Warp.

* * *

Lysander knew this maneuver or at least heard of it in theory. He almost never fought the Crones before in his time of service within the Imperial Navy, as this strange xenos rarely venture out of the Crone worlds for pitched void combat.

"High-energy turn 90°starboard!" Even that was too late for him.

* * *

"Don't you get aroused by the battle?" Eloch asked after ordering the engines to shut off once the entirety of the vessel was in the maw of the Warp.

"No," Lokair said flatly like this was all a matter of professional business to him.

"Don't be such a spoilsport, can't a girl enjoy her job?"

With the engines offline, it was easier for the ship to use the hull thrusters to turn in place. It pushed itself to arrive 180° in place without moving advancing or reversing. When all was said and done, the battlecruiser restarted the engines and slowly turned its 500 meter long barrels to face starboard instead. Those on the bridge could see that time didn't advance outside of the hole as explosions froze in place and macro shells were standing still in the void after leaving the batteries.

As the Crone ship reentered realspace, however, time was ever so slowly restarted as the shells were beginning to speed toward the hull and the enemy hull thrusters ignited.

"All batteries, fire at will!"

The Imperial ship was starting to turn away from  _Tendril_  when she was moving parallel to  _Pike_. The first volley from the bow Starcannon turrets disintegrated the void shields. Macro shells impacting the starboard side to have thick layers of ghastbone armor to be sent flying off, negating the damage. Turrets on the prow also fired off a volley to have them rip off the bridge sitting near the engines. Dorsal turrets fired off their smaller quadruple 400 meters long Starcannons to disable the engines as the power and communication lines from the bridge and the engine rooms were cut off. Finally, turrets the same as the dorsal ones, fired from the aft to punch into the hull of the light cruiser and ruining the weapons deck. All the Crone Eldars onboard could practically smell the fear emitting from their prey.

* * *

"Orders from the XO! We are scuttling this ship!" Shouted the man near a macro-cannon while waving his arms to usher the panicking crew to get into the escape pods. The executive officer and a few others survived the initial volley aimed at the bridge to give the order. Fires were raging out of control as others had been trapped in collapsed hallways and the superstructure was giving out. Metal beams crushed a few like bugs while they scurried to safety when the internal explosions worsen.

There still thousands onboard when both the comms officer and the XO slotted in the keys to arm the atomic warhead near the engines.

"On the count of three, we both turn at the same time." Blood from Lysander was covering his shaven head when staring into the eyes of the comms officer for confirmation.

She nodded to have her bob cut hair jump around near her neck,"I have to say... It has been my dream to serve in the Imperial Navy."

"I guess the same goes for me as well," making the sign of the double-headed Imperial Aquila of an eagle and Phoenix with his hands,"Now, I'll begin the countdown. One."

"In life, serene." Whispering the words under her breath.

"Two."

"In conflict, willful." She came from a rich banking clan that tried to force her to retain the ancient traditions. Not one to practice Yechudism, but now the words from the holy text rang true.

"Three."

"In death, defiant." It came out of her mouth as she turned the key in symmetry with her commanding officer. The atomic warhead was set off to detonate along with overloading the engines. In a spectacular display of blinding lights, red, purple, orange, and yellow flames flared up inside the ship in its death throes.  _Pike_  was cut asunder by a great explosion from within the center of the hull along with the volatile engines. Macro-cannons, rail guns, and bulkheads were thrown every which way at the end of its life.


End file.
